Week 25 - Little Christmas Miracles

The Christmas holiday is among us and we have never been busier!

Remember how last week was pretty rough and I said the Lord was going to provide us with some Christmas miracle....well, it happened! It all started Monday when our good friend Grandpa brought us a real Christmas tree to decorate. He then told us about a family who is ready to receive the gospel. The dad is currently an inactive member in our ward, but he wants to change and get back to going to church. His wife is not a member and they have three cute little kids. We have only met the dad, but he is such a solid person and we can't wait to teach their whole family! We are planning to meet them tomorrow with Grandpa so wish us luck!

Other members have reached out to us as well this week. The Otto's asked us Monday night to help them deliver cookies and DVDs of the Light the World videos to families in their neighborhood. It was so much fun and the Otto's are the most genuine people you will ever meet! We sang Christmas carols and watched as all the kids gathered around to hear the music. It gave me the idea of singing to everyone we talk to and that is exactly what we did this week. 

We spent this whole week singing to people. Every single person we saw in the streets or every door we knocked on, we just asked if we could sing them a Christmas carol. Some were caught a little off guard, but they never rejected us. I watched their hearts softens as we sang, and we were then able to share our message of Christ with them. As we shared our favorite Christmas traditions and how we remember Christ this season, we were able to introduce the Book of Mormon as another way to remember Christ all year long. You'd be surprised at how many people actually accepted copies of the Book of Mormon and said they would read the introduction. It was incredible and I've never felt more joy in my heart! And it all happened just by singing "Silent Night" to everyone. The power of music is real my friends! 

We also had another member reach out to us this week from a little town called Orting. He told us about his work buddy who happened to live in our ward boundaries and he was interested in learning more about the Church! The member sent us his phone number and address so we called right away. They are a young family as well and we are pretty excited to meet them! We were supposed to meet with them last week, but his work just got super busy so we will have to wait and see. Keep them in your prayers!

This Saturday we had the ward Christmas party and our friends Doug and Carol came! We invited a lot of other people too, but so many have been getting sick lately. Our ward is full of amazing member missionaries; they just flocked to Doug and Carol's table and started talking about the gospel. It was great! We also had a family come who is trying to get active again. They are amazing people and they have been through so much. I know the gospel will be the answer to every single problem they're facing. 

There's no better time than Christmas time to share the love and invite people to feel the pure love of Christ. As we have visited our friends and members this week, I now know what it means to "Give as He Gave." Christ was our perfect example and He gave us everything. Even in the hardest moments of His ministry, I truly believe He was the happiest person to ever walk the earth because He understood eternal joy. This joy cannot be wrapped or handed off; it only comes as we forget ourselves and look to serve others. 

I love you all and I hope you have a merry CHRISTmas! 

love,

sis. smith

Week 24 - Planting Seeds of Faith

Hi friends!

   Well this week was kind of a rough one for us, but that's ok because we know the Lord is just preparing us for a Christmas miracle. And we did see some little miracles along the way this week!

   Monday night we found a lady named Elain. We were actually trying to see her neighbors, Douglas and Carol, but they weren't home. Elain was a referral from some members and she usually was never home when we stopped by. Well of course the one night we try and see her neighbors, Elain pulls into her driveway. She walks with a cane and she was struggling to get her groceries in. We all just look at each other and jump out of the car. Elain let us help her take her groceries in and then invited us to sit down and talk with her. We found out she's been taught by missionaries for almost 20 years and she already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She wants to be baptized, but her older sister is totally against the church and Elain fears if she gets baptized, her sister will go off the deep end. So Elain is waiting for her sister to pass away and then she will get baptized...her words, not mine. Super cool lady and has such amazing faith, but not exactly sure how to help her in this situation. We are going to start trying to get her to come to church again. That's a good start right? 

    Wednesday was an interesting day. We spent almost all morning helping at the local food bank which is something I can't complain about. I love the food bank and the volunteers there are so amazing! Then we put together our Light the World handouts consisting of pass along cards and candies stapled to them. Our plan was to sing Christmas carols to people in town and hand out the cards. Wednesday night we went tracting and I felt like we needed to knock this one house. We met Kevin and asked him if we could show him a video. We showed him the first week video of Light the World and I saw tears in his eyes. We talked about Christ being the center of Christmas and also the center of our lives. He told us he had many friends who were members of the Church and he always noticed how happy they were. I told him it's because they have knowledge of the restored truth and introduced the Book of Mormon. He willingly took my challenge to read the introduction and invited us to come back the next day. We did and sadly, he gave the Book of Mormon back, but I know something we said touched his heart. We were just planting a little seed of hope in his heart and one day he will accept the gospel. 

   On Saturday we had exchanges and Sister Devol came to our area. First of all Sister Devol is the coolest sister ever! She was originally called to the Russian speaking mission in Washington, but she went home early due to medical reasons. I won't share her whole story (because I don't have the time and it's pretty personal) but just know that Heavenly Father must have really needed her for a reason. After her medical scare, she decided to come back and is now serving English speaking. This is only her second transfer back. Seriously, Sister Devol is my new role model. 

   Anyway, so many things happened on exchanges! We've been trying to get in contact with our friend Arianna for weeks, but she never is home. Well, we weren't even planning to see her on Saturday, but we were going to see a less active member who lives in the same apartment area as her. The member wasn't home, but we saw Arianna's car parked and decided to knock on her door. She didn't answer so we knocked on her neighbor's door and had a chat with Megan. Midway through our conversation, Arianna comes out and listens in on our conversation. We invited both of them to church and finally got Arianna's phone number (something we have wanted for a very long time). They both said they would consider it so we'll have to see. 

    Later that night, we grabbed our Light the World cards and went to the only area of civilization in Enumclaw. We sang "Silent Night" and handed out the cards to random people walking out of the shops and restaurants. We even went inside a cafe and asked the manager if we could sing "Silent Night" to the customers. The manager thought it was a great idea and we got the whole restaurant singing! It was incredible and people were pulling out their phones to record us haha. After, we invited everyone to go check out the Light the World videos on lds.org. This one woman we sang to was carrying groceries and we offered to help her. She was so touched by our song and service that she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said she would come visit our church. She told us she was looking for a place to feel uplifted and safe and we were an answer to her prayers. Such a neat experience!

    We still had some time left so we went to the Safeway grocery store and offered to help people with their groceries. Some people were weirded out, but others were appreciative of our willingness to serve. Many seeds of faith were planted that night. 

    This week we may not have seen the outcome of our efforts, but I know that the people who we did talk to will remember us. They will remember the light of Christ and some day they will have the desire to know more. Missions are more than just baptizing people; our purpose is to invite and help people see that there is a God who really loves them. That's the best message we can bring and if they are ready, they will accept the rest. 

Have another amazing week and remember to share the light of Christ with others! Love you! 

love,

sis. smith

Our little Christmas tree

Light the world!!

We made pizza this week because it's a requirement for having an Italian companion

So many farms in Enumclaw 🐄

Preaching to the pigs

Exchanges

Just some of my favorite members aka the Knapps 

Week 23 - Happy December!

Wow how is it already December?! Time seriously flies as a missionary! I love this time of the year because it brings out the best in everyone. We've been busy serving our community and "lighting the world" this week and it's been incredible. There's no joy quite like the joy that Christmas brings!

We had a lesson with Brad on Wednesday and our goal was to see what his needs were. He has a copy of the Book of Mormon from the church tour but he wasn't reading it. We asked him some questions and he opened up about reading being a struggle for him. We shared stories of our own personal weaknesses and how the Book of Mormon has given us strength to overcome them. We offered to read with him and then asked if he would be willing to read some small passages on his own. He said he felt like he could do that so now Brad is finally reading the Book of Mormon! I have a firm testimony in the power of listening. It can be so easy to always be thinking of what you want to say next. In past lessons with Brad, we felt we weren't getting anywhere because we weren't truly teaching to his needs. By asking him how he felt about the Book of Mormon and what he wanted to learn, we could adjust our teaching to better help him. This world needs more listeners. Not just people who will hear with their ears. We need people to listen with their hearts and also listen to the Spirit. When we listen to the Spirit, we offer ourselves as an instrument in the Lord's hands to help bring about His work. Listening will take one further in life than just hearing. It definitely helped us with Brad. 

Thursday we had a few miracles! There's this man named Gary who we have stopped by in the past. We tried to get him to read the Book of Mormon, but he didn't really seem interested. His neighbors are some of the most amazing members of our ward and they would always update us on him. Usually, it was nothing new: Gary didn't have a desire to read the Book of Mormon. Still, Sister Deruvo and I never felt like we should give up on Him. We went by and his sweet wife happened to be there. She welcomed us inside and we had a nice chat. I asked Gary if he had read yet. I was expecting him to just say no and leave it at that. Instead he said "No, I haven't read yet, but show me a good place to start." We were all so surprised as Gary grabbed his Book of Mormon and highlighter. He gave it to me and I highlighted the introduction and the Testimony of Joseph Smith. He said he would read it by next week and his wife said she would read it with him! It was such a miracle! 

We also ran into Eric (a friend we had previously taught months ago). He let us in and we had a good discussion about the Book of Mormon. He said he would be willing to read it again and let us come by again in the next week! On the way out, we got talking about hunting and he disappears for a second. He comes out with a bag of frozen deer meat and says "some deer meat for a scripture assignment." So yeah, now we have a huge bag of frozen deer sitting in our freezer. People are the greatest :) 

Friday we had to take our car in to get the battery replaced (it was needing to be jumped literally every other day). We were basically there all day, so nothing much happened. We did get to go with Brad and some members to the big nativity event they do every year at the church in Maple Valley. People offer their nativities to be put on display (many of them from different parts of the world) and everyone just walks around to look at them. They also had live musical performances and a photo booth. We got Brad to dress up as a shepherd and take a picture with us. He wasn't super excited about it haha. 

Saturday was incredible! We spent all morning bringing little Christmas treats with scriptures attached to our friends and members for our Day of Service activity. Then we had to drive to Bellevue to hear Elder Gong of the Quorum of the 12 apostles speak to our whole mission. It was AMAZING! There's nothing quite like being in the presence of an apostle. Some members of the seventy came as well and spoke to us. My hand cramped up so many times from trying to write everything down! They are truly inspired men of God. Elder Gong talked about how we as missionaries/members need to "lay everything on the alter" for the Lord so we can become better instruments. When we fully submit ourselves to our Heavenly Father, we have nothing to hide and everything to give. We can go to Him in full confidence, knowing that we have done everything we possibly could. This was definitely something I needed to hear! 

I'm so beyond thankful for this wonderful time of the year and I know we are going to see more miracles along the way. I hope you all take the challenge to "Light the World" this holiday season and reach out to those who need some love! Have a great week!

love, 

sister smith

Hot chocolate on the daily

The nativity!!

 Our group photo feat. Brad our best friend (hint: he's not smiling) 

 Love my little angels

Saw my mom (trainer) and almost cried 😢😍

Sister Vanderwerken aka godmother

It's December and we still go hiking

Look at these mushrooms what?!

Us waiting for a new car battery...for 3 hours

Week 22 - Thankful

Hey!

This week was super super crazy! Tuesday night, we had to be in Bellevue (about an hour drive from Enumclaw) by 6 pm to pick up the new missionaries. Sister Deruvo and I had no trouble getting there, but getting back was another story...

First of all, the new missionaries didn't get to the mission office until 9 pm so we were just waiting around for 3 hours. I didn't mind it at all because I saw my cutie friend Hermana Wilcock (remember when we were in a trio double covering areas?) and we got to catch up on a lot of things. She will also be in a trio this transfer because her companion is training and she's just along for the ride. When the newbies came, we all stood in a line and shook everyone's hand that came in. Then we all sat in the chapel and President assigned the companionships. My trainee is Sister Waldron from Rexburg, Idaho and she's super sweet! I love her so much already! Not gonna lie, being in a trio is rough because we get so sidetracked and forget to get things done. I think each day has included me laughing until the tears start flowing because we are just too funny. Anyway, back to Tuesday night...we put in the church address in Enumclaw into Google Maps and we were making pretty good timing. I think we were about half way home when the maps app stopped working so we tried to refresh it. It started working again so we thought nothing of it. Then, we start seeing Seattle signs everywhere and we are like "why are we still seeing the Seattle exit signs? Shouldn't we be close to home by now?" Google maps had somehow put the mission office address in when we refreshed it so basically we drove halfway home from Bellevue and back without realizing it! We ended up not getting home until 11 pm so we were pretty out of it the next day. 

Wednesday night we finally had a lesson with J'nell and Rod! J'nell's mom happened to be there as well and it was incredible to hear her testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We had an amazing lesson with them and J'nell was in tears at the end. Also...Rod is on date to be baptized December 22nd! Best Christmas present ever. Now if we can just get them to start coming to church...

Thanksgiving is so amazing as a missionary. Everyone just takes such good care of you because you aren't with your families. In the morning we drove with the hermanas to the stake center in Federal Way. Each year for Thanksgiving, all the missionaries get together and we just play sports for half the day. Volleyball, soccer, basketball, ultimate frisbee....we did it all. I think my favorite part of the whole activity was just getting to catch up with all the sister missionaries. Some of them have truly become my best friends. After the mission activity, we went to the Riendeau's for Thanksgiving dinner. It was AMAZING! Brother Riendeau's side of the family is mostly from France so we ate dinner with his French cousins. There was also family from Germany and New Zealand there! Sister Deruvo felt right at home...so many European accents! 

Friday we had to drive to the Renton church building for new missionary training and we had to be there at 8 am. Guess what happened? Our car engine died right as we were trying to leave! I am so done with our car. I think the car engine has died 5+ times last week so we are going to take it in this week and have it looked at. Anyway, we were frantically looking for anyone who might have jumper cables. Of course this is at 7 in the morning so either everyone is still asleep or at work. We finally saw a lady walking by and Sister Deruvo ran full speed at her. The lady didn't have anything to help us, but she knew a guy who would have jumper cables. In less than 5 minutes, we saw her coming back with a man who was clearly living in his car. He pulled up and got our engine to start in no time. We were extremely grateful for that little miracle and we weren't even that late to the training.

Saturday we had our first finding festival of the transfer. Sister Waldron was terrified to knock doors, but she did a great job. We didn't have too much success. We met a lot of nice people, but it's hard to teach someone who is so set in their ways. We just did our best in testifying of Christ and sharing verses from the Book of Mormon. There was one kid we met named Ethan who accepted our challenge to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. His father is the pastor of the church they go to, but that didn't keep us from sharing the restored gospel with him. We plan to follow up with him on his experience soon. 

Alright well that's about it for this week! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and ate lots of yummy food! The missionary work has been a little slow lately as far as progressing friends go...but I know we just have to be patient. The Lord grants miracles to those who are willing to wait. I know we will have more success soon, but please continue to pray for our friends that their hearts may be softened. 

I hope you all have a great week!

love,

sis. smith

We love sister Riendeau

So many pies!! All homemade of course :)

Black rain boots are a necessity for a Washington sister missionary 

Always gotta have a nature pic 

Week 21 - Transfer 4 Here We Go

Guys so much is happening and this new transfer is about to be the craziest one yet! Transfer 3 has come and gone, and was by far the quickest 6 six weeks of my life.

I'm still in good ol' Enumclaw with Sister Deruvo, but I'm also training again! Basically I'm training someone else within training Sister Deruvo so this is going to get interesting. Our apartment is pretty small already and we have to fit another sister in there but we are determined to make it work. We are going to have a lot of fun! Sister Deruvo will leave Dec. 18th to go back to Temple Square so we only have 4 more weeks together. Then it will just be me and my cute little trainee the rest of the transfer. Honestly so excited because the more the merrier right? Especially around the holidays! We also get a bunk bed in our apartment...lucky us right?!

This week we didn't have too much success. J'nell and Rod have been rescheduling our meetings every time due to Rod's unpredictable work schedule so we haven't seen them for quite some time. They still have not made it to church sadly so keep them in your prayers. Mike and Chelsea sadly dropped us so we will not be teaching them anymore. We still have not seen or heard from Joel, but the ward is doing their absolute best to reach out to him. We spent the majority of our week working with members and finding new people to teach. We made it a goal to go knocking on doors at least 30 minutes a day. It's definitely not our favorite thing to do, but we know it shows our Heavenly Father we are willing to work hard to find those elect people. We've actually seen some miracles come from it. Quite a few asked us to come back after Thanksgiving when life isn't so crazy, so hopefully we will have lots of new friends to teach soon! We've also seen a lot of rejection. One lady literally told us to "take our religion and get off her porch." It's moments like that when you and your companion just have to laugh and move on. 

We had a really successful discussion with our friend Arianna. Usually her kids are there every time we go over and as cute as they are....they are a major distraction. This time when we went over, her kids were in daycare still so we were able to talk with her one on one. She opened up A LOT and we finally know how to help her progress. She has been to our church once befote and really liked how she felt there, so hopefully we can get her to come again! 

I have truly planted my heart here in Enumclaw and nothing makes me more happy than getting to be with these people for the holidays. They have become my family and they will always hold a special place in my heart. 

I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving and remember to take some time to just realize how blessed we are! God is so good to us! 

Love you,

sis. smith 

Last district council together 

Yep that's us

 the ZONE

sister Deruvo and I have consumed way too much sushi lately 

 Look at this sunset, wow we live in a cool place!

How we feel about transfers

Sisters who make pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes together in their pjs are the best kind of sisters 

Week 20 - Zone Conference, Finding Festival, and Church Tour

Hey friends!

This week was another emotional roller-coaster which is actually pretty normal in the life of a missionary. I can't believe this transfer ends next week. I feel like it just started!

At the beginning of last week, we were invited to teach a lesson at the senior family home evening. Guess what the topic was? MISSIONARY WORK of course! We had a lot of fun with it because we practically had to yell the whole lesson so everyone could hear. Also the video we had prepared wasn't working and everyone was shouting their recommendations at us of what video we should watch. I love love love our senior ward members haha. Many of them are converts to the Church so we asked them to share their conversion stories. It was so amazing and the excitement of missionary work just overcame us all. I think it's so important that we realize missionary work isn't just about preaching the gospel; it includes being a friend and serving those around you. It includes being an example so others will recognize the light in you. Missionary work is so much easier than we think and I hope to be the best member missionary when I get home! 

On Wednesday, we had zone conference and it was amazing! There's nothing I love more than being surrounded by a bunch of missionaries and just learning how we can continue to elevate our mission. It only happens once a transfer and this time is so crucial for receiving revelation for our area. I know that there's some changes I definitely want to make to help progress this work. We also are already discussing Christmas plans which is crazy. It will be here before we know it! I'm so excited though to just serve everyone and talk about our Savior. 

Thursday was a very rough day....we spent basically half the day searching for Joel. He has fallen off the face of the earth and he won't reach out to us. We know something happened, but he won't talk about it. I felt like we were on a missing persons case because we were driving all around town, talking to different people that may have seen him. Luckily, we did finally run into him, but he's different. All I can say is, please please pray for him! Also, our car engine died again while this was all happening. Luckily, we have amazing members (the Ottos) that rushed to our rescue! 

On Saturday, we had another finding festival and our big church tour. We didn't see too much success with finding people, but we had a lot of fun with it. The elders found us a potential family to teach so we are really excited about that! I got to go finding with Hermana Aguayo and I'm convinced the Lord wants me to eventually go Spanish speaking. I'm always with the hermanas on finding day, and for the most part, I can actually understand what they are saying which is crazy because I was not good at Spanish in high school. The gift of tongues is a real thing and I'm going to teach myself Spanish now. 

We had some friends show up to our church tour! Brad came with some kids from our ward and I think he liked it. He took a Book of Mormon and said he will start reading it which is progress! Our elderly friends Douglas and Carol came too and they had a lot of good questions. Doug basically believes in the Book of Mormon minus a few details so we really just need him to be reading the scriptures everyday. We are guaranteed to develop a testimony of the Book of Mormon when we read with a sincere desire to know the truth. 

We haven't heard from Chelsea and Mike since they came to church so keep them in your prayers as well. We also still haven't been able to meet with J'nell so fingers crossed that they will reach out this week. Overall, the work is good. It's hard and yes, there are moments when I wonder "why am I even here?" You just have to look past all of that and when you do, the shower of blessings start to come. Trust me, it's so worth it to keep going. 

I hope this week brings you joy! Take moments to just laugh, even when you are having the worst day ever. Laughter will keep you sane! I can promise that. 

Love you all!

love,

sis. smith 

 Senior FHE with my favorite people

 My district sistas after zone conference 

Sister Cowley ❤

love my Italian companion

Views

Had to fit 12 balloons in our car for the church tour, it was nuts!

Week 19 - Tricks and Treats

Hey hey!

I hope you all had a lovely Halloween. Ours was pretty uneventful, but we made it fun! We spent all Halloween just visiting less active families and people we are teaching. We made little treat bags and wrote cards to each of them. They were all super grateful :) Also, as missionaries, we aren't allowed to be out past 7 on Halloween night so we just stayed in our apartment all night. We baked apples with cinnamon and brown sugar and watched church movies until we both passed out from exhaustion. 

Trick for the Week: Pretty sure Satan is trying to sabotage all our friends and members. Literally everyone we have talked to this week has the flu or has a family member with the flu. We are just waiting for it to hit us one day because we are surrounded by sick people. Our cute family, J'nell and Rod, were going to come to church this week and we were so excited about it. On Sunday morning we got a text saying they were hit with the flu and they couldn't make it to church. We also had to reschedule the lesson with them. It was pretty disappointing. It's also getting super dark at night which has made proselyting difficult. When we try to visit people in the evening, they usually don't want to talk with us because they are eating dinner or going to bed (yes, some go to bed at 7 pm just because it's darker outside). We've been trying to schedule more lessons in the evening so we can knock on doors earlier in the day, but it doesn't always work out. 

Treat for the Week: We had a trunk-or-treat with our stake last Tuesday and we invited all of our friends to it. Not all of them came, but we did see some of them there! It was great because they were able to meet many of the ward members so they can feel more comfortable about coming to church. Sister Deruvo and I just walked around and people kept asking us what we were dressed up as for Halloween lol. They think they are so funny. Our friends Mike and Chelsea were going to come to the trunk-or-treat, but guess what? They had the flu! Ok, but they totally made up for it because they came to church this Sunday!! They've been meaning to come for weeks now, so we were super shocked to see them actually show up. It was testimony meeting and they were super impressed with the way people would just get up and share their thoughts. They only stayed for sacrament meeting, but they loved it. They told us they had some reading to do....hopefully that means they are going to read the Book of Mormon. It was such a miracle. 

Well, that's pretty much all that happened this week! Pray for J'nell and Rod to get better so we can start teaching them again and get Rod on date for baptism! I love you all and I hope you have the best week ever! 

Be kind and be happy :) 

love,

sis. smith

 Thankful for Target and pizza costumes

Froyo is always a good idea

We made elder brewer a cake for his birthday (basically the best sisters ever) 

 Lol the district leader left this on our doorstep Halloween night. We have no idea what to do with it all 

Week 17 & 18 - Spiritual Ditches

Hello friends! 

Sorry I was lame and didn't send out a weekly email last week, but life has been crazy in the best kind of way! 

These past two weeks we've really been working with J'nell and Rod. J'nell definitely did her research and she had some good questions. We actually ended up going to the library this week to do some more research so we could understand how to help her. Last night we brought a member with us to their home and it was amazing! This lady is Sister Thorley and she is the most knowledgeable woman I've ever met. She had an answer to every question J'nell had and explained everything in such a logical way. I swear every time I listen to her, I am more converted to this gospel. She knows how to teach to one's understanding and the Spirit is so strong when she testifies of Joseph Smith being a prophet. After we answered all of J'nells questions, we both offered our personal testimonies of the Book of Mormon and I could just see something change in J'nell. She was becoming converted too. Now with the questions out of the way, we can start discussing when Rod wants to be baptized and they are going to start coming to church! This family has seriously been a blessing to us. 

We've made a few new friends these past couple of weeks. We found Brad last week during our mini finding festival and he's a pretty cool guy. He's around our age and we've only had one lesson with him, but he's on date for baptism in November! Hopefully all goes according to plan. We also had a lesson with a referral from some of our favorite members, the Knapps. This woman named Eva is from the Czech Republic and she's been living in the US for quite a few years now. She met Sister Knapp at work and ended up living with them for a year due to some financial/medical problems. Her husband is still in the Czech Republic receiving medical help and so Eva is all alone here. The Knapps found her a little apartment and she's come to church with them before. We taught her the Restoration and Brother Knapp blessed her new home. We were all in tears by the end because the Spirit was so strong. Yesterday we talked with a man named Mark who likes to show us videos of old British singers lol. When we first met Mark, he did not want to talk to us. We started asking him questions about his life and he opened up. Once he saw that we were genuinely interested in what he had to say, we were able to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon with him. We are going back tomorrow so hopefully we can discuss more about the gospel. 

This past Tuesday was an interesting day....we were trying to find Brad's house and literally took a turn for the worse. Sister Deruvo was the one who had found Brad when we were on splits during finding festival day so only she knew where he lived. She was trying to direct me where she thought they parked last time. Now, you have to understand that Enumclaw has these huge ditches on the side of the roads, but they are covered with really tall grass. So when you are just looking at the ditch from the front view, it looks flat. Sister Deruvo says "oh I think we parked there" so I go to park and instantly regret it. Our car starts to sink sideways and we are totally stuck. Not to mention that this is a busy highway we are stuck on the side of so we are in a pretty dangerous situation. We call Brad to reschedule and then our mission vehicle coordinator. He tells us to get out of the car immediately and to call a tow truck. The car is slightly teetering so getting out was a challenge, but we made it. Just as we are trying to call a tow truck, the police show up. The officer asks us what happened and he calls a tow truck for us. The funny thing is that all these members (many of them not even from our ward) pulled up as they were driving past and asked us if we needed any help. The police officer kept commenting "wow you know everyone here." Really we don't, but as missionaries we tend to have lots of people looking out for us. Oh, and I forgot to mention that after they towed our car out, the battery died, and so when I tried to back up, the car slid into the ditch again. We had to call someone with jumper cables and pull the car out of the ditch a second time. It was a hilarious/scary experience I never want to go through again. 

Getting stuck in the ditch did help me learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes in life we found ourselves in mental/spiritual ditches and we have no idea how to get out. When we look to trusted people that have been given the authority to give us guidance (the prophets), then we can find our solution to these spiritual ditches. We also have to learn to laugh when things don't go our way. Life is full of making mistakes and instead of letting ourselves get down about all the things we could've done better, just laugh and move on. Use your mistakes to help you move forward and you will be happier. I must admit it's not always an easy thing to do, but I have found it truly works, especially when you're a missionary. 

Anyway, the rest of the week was great! Mike and Chelsea, the young couple we have been teaching, have finally agreed to come to church with us this Sunday! Also Joel is doing well. We had a great lesson with him at the Knapp's home Wednesday night and we are preparing him to receive the Aaronic priesthood. He has been going to the Maple Valley YSA ward for the last couple of weeks and our ward has

been missing him. They love Joel so much and they always ask us how he's doing. Our ward is just the greatest! I hope I get to stay here for the holidays :) 

Thank you for your emails! I love reading about everything you guys are up to! Enjoy my favorite season for me and go hike a mountain or something. Have a great week and remember to always put Christ above all! 

lots of love,
sis. smith

I be(leaf) in Christ....pun intended obviously

Fall is here in Enumclaw!

 My companion being attacked by nature

Rip the car 

Week 16 - Italy is Better than Utah Apparently

Ciao!

So my new companion is the coolest person ever. She's from Italy and her English is amazing. She was called to the Temple Square mission in Salt Lake, but I guess it's a completely different kind of mission. They work with people online a lot more than we do and they get to give tours to everyone! The temple square sisters get a chance to receive a second mission call to serve somewhere else for 2 transfers to see what it would be like. My cute trainee, Sister Deruvo got called here and she is seriously amazing. She's going to teach me some Italian whether she wants to or not, lol. It's honestly so funny to see the reactions of people when they ask where we are from. I'll say "Utah" and get no reaction. Then Sister Deruvo will say "Italy" and everyone's eyes just get big. They start asking a bunch of questions like "Wow do they have many members in Italy?" or "Are you a convert to the Church?" 

Anyway, even though my "trainee" has been out longer than I have, I'm still called to be her trainer. Everything from our schedule to finding people to teach is way different than the Temple Square mission so she kind of has to relearn/adjust to some things. It's been good though and she has a lot of patience with me. I'm not going to lie...it's been a rough couple of days adjusting. I feel like I went from being the baby of the family to the oldest kid within a day and it's given me a lot of responsibility. Sister Deruvo only brought her tablet so I've been on phone duty and driving duty this week. IT'S BEEN HECTIC. We may have gotten lost more than a couple of times, but all is well. This experience has been much needed and I definitely feel more humble than when I first came out. We've spent most this week knocking on doors, partly because I want Sister Deruvo to get comfortable talking to people on their doorstep and partly because we need more friends to teach. Other than Joel, our other friends have not been progressing very much lately. HOWEVER....we saw a lot of promise with tracting this week and hopefully we will have some new people to teach soon! 

J'nell and her family (the ones who got involved in a lot of anti -literature) finally reached out to us! They have been dealing with a lot of problems lately and have been keeping in contact with us all week to get the help they need. I think it's incredible that when people go through hard things, they always seem to find their way back to the gospel. I know that Heavenly Father truly gives us trials out of love. He knows that when hard things come, we can choose to grow closer to Him or to fall away. It's in those moments when we look to the gospel for help that we understand the power of Christ's Atonement and the comfort it can bring us. I hope J'nell is realizing that and I know that her heart has been softened. We are going over tonight to answer all their questions so PLEASE PRAY FOR US! Also, J'nell and Rod still want to be married by our bishop so that's a huge step in the right direction :)

Joel is doing well and is getting involved in the young single adult ward up in Maple Valley. I think it will be good for him to meet other kids his age in the Church; our ward is full of old people haha. Also, he did finally find a job and luckily he doesn't have to work on Sundays! We are now teaching him the new member lessons and it's been really cool to see how far he has come. He understands the Restoration way more than when we first taught it to him. We really want him to serve a mission because we think he'd be amazing at it. Joel is the type that will talk with anyone he sees and have a two hour conversation with them so he's basically a pre-trained missionary. Also, he went to all four sessions of General Conference and even took notes! We are so PROUD of him!

Not much else has happened, but I know we are about to witness an abundance of miracles here in Enumclaw very soon! I've been thinking about one of the overall themes of General Conference lately and I love the idea of "shepherding" to others in need. Christ was the Good Shepherd and He served everyone no matter who they were. As members of His church, we too have been given the responsibility to serve others and to be His hands in this great work. We may not realize it, but there is so much to be said in the small acts of kindness we do every single day. I encourage you all to be kind to one another and to love each other as the Savior would. Each person has a right to feel the love of God! Service is the best medicine for sorrow and I have definitely found that to be true as a missionary. 

I love you all and I wish you the best week ever!

love, 

sis. smith

  this is where i live. so pretty.

our hike today

Week 15 - Baptism, General Conference, & Transfers

Hey everyone! Oh my gosh this week has been the craziest week of my mission by far!  I know I say that every week but it's for reals this time!

So our little friend Joel finally got baptized!! It was the greatest experience  ever and I'm so humbled I got to be a part of it (it's pretty rare here in Washington to have a baptism during your two transfers of training). Also, our ward is actually amazing. So many members came to support him and we ended up filling the chapel! My cute companion sang "Nearer My God, To Thee" with our ward mission leader's wife and it was beautiful. The spirit was so strong in the chapel.

And....Joel brought his mom to his baptism! Not only is she the coolest, most supportive lady ever, but she asked our bishop if she could go up and bear her testimony! After Joel was baptized, his mom went up and shared her thoughts about how her faith in God has grown. She ended up talking for like 15 minutes but it was such a powerful testimony. At the end of the baptism, she gave us her phone number and asked us to keep an eye on Joel. She has so much trust in us and we barely just met her! 

A couple days later we went by Joel's apartment to drop off some things he left at the church. We asked him how he felt after being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He said he "felt lighter" and I definitely could see it. I wish you could see how he used to be. He used to be so negative about the future and his self-image. Now he's happier and knows he is cared for by the ward. He shared with us that he quit his only job because they asked him to start working on Sundays at the same time church starts. He only has like $10 left and no idea where he's going to find a new job, but he's so hopeful. If that's not faith, I don't know what is! 

Ok now can we talk about General Conference?? Best birthday present ever. All the missionaries got to watch it in the chapel and we just partied in between sessions. I love love love our prophet so much. So much revelation received! I'm taking the challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year and I encourage you all to do the same. The Book of Mormon has brought me so much comfort and knowledge during my mission. It is truly what will be the foundation of our eternal conversion. 

Now something crazy to tell you! So transfers are here and we've all been dreading it. Most of the missionaries in our zone have been here for at least 3 transfers so we knew the zone was about to get scattered. For the last couple of weeks everyone has been telling me I was destined to train next transfer. I blew it off because I thought there was no way our mission president would trust me to train someone right after I just completed training. But it's not the mission president's decision....it's God's decision. So anyway, I've been super nervous about taking over the area because I knew my trainer, Sister Morris was going to leave me next transfer. Then, on Sunday while we were watching the morning session of General Conference, without warning I heard a voice say "You are going to be a trainer." It totally threw me off and I kinda looked around. The feeling came again and even stronger. I silently told Heavenly Father I wasn't ready to be a trainer, but then I felt an overwhelming feeling of trust and I knew this is what He wanted me to do. I can't remember who gave the talk during that moment, but he was talking about letting our faith in Christ overcome our fear. It was exactly what I needed to hear.

Sunday night transfer calls came and sure enough, my trainer was leaving me. On Monday, I helped her pack and we went to say goodbye to all the members and our friends. Mondays are also the days we are informed if we have been assigned a leadership calling. While Sister Morris and I were studying, the phone rang and it was the assistants to the president. My heart dropped as Elder Corbett told me I would be a trainer next transfer. These were his exact words: The Lord has a lot of trust in you Sister Smith. You will either make or break this sister's mission." Then he hung up. Talk about a lot of pressure! I definitely freaked out but after some much needed encouragement and advice, I feel better about training this next transfer. 

The mission truly is there to push up and mold us into what He needs us to be. I hope to be the best trainer for this new sister. I know that my faith in the Lord's plan for me will mean everything these next couple of months. Please pray for me and wish me luck! 

Grateful for you all and please never forgot how much you are loved!

Love, 

Sister Smith